Cartoon Forum Names Finalists

Cartoon Forum, the annual European animation festival and trade confab, released the list of five films competing for the coveted Cartoon d’Or at this year’s event, taking place Sept. 21-24 in Kolding, Denmark. The European shorts will be competing for 15,000€, to be put towards the production of a series or a feature.

This year’s finalists are City Paradise by French filmmaker Gaëlle Denis, Falling from Peter Kaboth of Germany, Flatlife by Belgian director Jonas Geirnaert, Jo Jo in the Stars from British filmmaker Marc Craste, and Little Things by Daniel Greaves, also of Britain.

City Paradise us described as the whimsical and poetic story of a young woman’s arrival in London and her discovery of the language, neighbors and environs. Meanwhile, Falling takes a snapshot of German society as seen through the eyes of a street-sweeper who is sweeping a courtyard between skyscrapers. Flatlife features a jaunty rhythm as it follows the adventures of a group of neighbors plagued by a moody washing machine and nails that won’t stay in the walls. Going further out on a limb, Jo Jo in the Stars finds its title character in love with a trapeze artist in an mysterious town where poetry and tenderness lurk just below the surface. Finally, Little Things humorously explores the minute details of everyday life that can make it so difficult, things like a light with a timer switch and a very long corridor.

The finalists have been selected from a pool of European films which have taken prizes at Cartoon’s partner festivals: Annecy, Bratislava, Bristol, Brussels, Espinho, Genzano di Roma, Fredrikstad, Stuttgart and Utrecht. The winner will be voted by a jury that includes Aardman co-founder and Chicken Run director Peter Lord; French filmmaker Philippe Leclerc (Les Enfants de la Pluie, aka Rain Children); and Danish director/producer Karsten Kiilerich of A. Film, the studio behind Help! I’m a Fish, Trolls, Terkel in Trouble and the upcoming The Ugly Duckling and Me.